Traumafessions :: Reader Tony on Siskel & Ebert

I would like to tell you about my first real introduction to the world of horror movies.

Up until this point in my life I had just heard whispers of these kinds of movies out on the playground. My friend Carla had an older brother who had tricked her into watching a movie called CARRIE on television with a promise that there would be cartoons afterwards. The next day she was traumatized… she told me all about the movie, blow by blow… I was shivering right there underneath the jungle gym just hearing about it. I had never seen a real horror movie (besides a Bigfoot documentary that gave me nightmares (but that’s another story).

It was about 1980, I was in the 3rd grade. My mom and me were hanging out in the living room one sunny afternoon listening to some K-tel albums. After the ‘Star Point’ record was over we decided to turn on the TV, boy was I in for a surprise.

The show SISKEL & EBERT SNEAK PREVIEWS was on and they happened to be doing an entire segment on Slasher movies and Scream Queens… I was intrigued… I was scared out of my mind; I would never be the same.

I vividly remember being frozen with fear watching the scene from FRIDAY THE 13TH where a hitchhiking woman is chased through the woods and murdered against a tree with a hunting knife… this was then followed like a one-two punch by JAMIE LEE CURTIS shrieking inside a closet being stalked by the ‘Shape in HALLOWEEN… oh my God that music was so horribly scary!! (But cool)… my little mind could not comprehend why they would make movies to scare people!

Even though I was terrified, my interest in horror was definitely piqued! Ever since that day I have officially been a devout horror movie junkie.

UNK SEZ: Tony, my brother from another mother, my introduction to HALLOWEEN and consequently real horror fanaticism was also via Siskel and Ebert (or as my friend Maggie called them, Pork and Beans). Ironically, as much as they were opposed to a lot of the slasher films of that time, I’d tune in just to watch the clips that they would show of them. They inadvertently turned me on to THE EVIL DEAD as well, which I remember them giving a negative review to. Strange that two people with such different views as my own could be such a big influence on my life and so many others. They’ll both always get two big thumbs up from me, regardless of their sometimes questionable taste!

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My Archie Bunker-like father used to call SISKEL AND EBERT “two fags” and tell me that they had a Bert and Ernie-like clandestine love affair going on and that when the cameras stopped rolling they made out with eachother in the balconey.